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CNN Live Sunday

Fires Destroy Homes, Displace Citizens All Over Southern California

Aired October 26, 2003 - 16:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Wildfires in Southern California have claimed at least two lives, burnt hundreds of homes and right now some 20,000 houses and other structures are endangered by the flames. Miguel Marquez has the latest from La Verne, California. It just seems, Miguel, this fire is going from bad to worse.
MIGUEL MARQEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I would like to be able to report it's getting better, but we just haven't had that opportunity the last couple days. I'm working one little corner of this fire now. And as I sort of worked on this thing on Friday, a second fire popped up east of here about 12 miles east of here. Then another fire north of here, about a 100 miles north of here. And then another fire south of here near San Diego.

That was in addition to several fires already burning in Southern California. So, it's a little difficult to keep up with all of this. But let me tell you what is going on here, we're in La Verne, California, right at the head of the Grand Prix fire which is been boiling behind us today in Clairemont, California, one suburb over. And it's been moving slowly and inevitably towards Los Angeles.

The Grand Prix Fire has now destroyed 59 plus homes in Clairmont, California and the old fire in San Bernadino has destroyed about 250 homes there. That number is expected to also rise.

Both of these fires, which were separated by ten miles to begin with have now burned together at the interchange of 215 and I-15 out here, if you know where that is. I-15, by the way, is the major freeway that goes between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, which should make some real fun traffic issues later today.

Both those fires have burned together creating a fire, a sort of super fire, about 72,000 acres in the San Bernardino and Angeles National Forests. Most of that is adjacent to urban areas, so you can understand the scope of this for firefighters with fire trucks, fire crews coming in from all over the country, descending on California in order to jump on this fire. As more fires break out, they bring in more and more crews from around the country.

Another problem this fire is having, is having national implications now for airlines causing some delays and some problems for airlines, because of an FAA control tower somewhere near Los Angeles, but not near the area of this fire where employees had to evacuate because flames were approaching and it upset the situation and the flow of air traffic into and out of LAX, San Diego Airport and some of the airports like Ontario, Burbank and John Wayne Airport. You mentioned two people dead, yesterday, apparently two elderly residents died from stress-related injuries because of the fire. And the press conference that you mentioned coming up from San Diego Sherrif's Department, we believe, we understand that they will offer some more details about some deaths that occurred down there.

The sheriff's department in San Diego saying that some individuals had been killed in San Diego. Radio is reporting anywhere between four and eight up here and they saying that they may have been trying to escape the fire in their automobiles. The other thing that we have been dealing with out here for the last couple of days are the winds, the Santa Ana winds. I can tell you that they have been squirrely at best today with the winds sort of pushing back between the oceans and the mountains all day.

Right now, is seems taht neither is winning. We're almost at a standstill and the fire behind us cooked all day and they expect those winds to blow in and pushing the fire behind me towards La Verne and closer to Los Angeles -- Andrea.

KOPPEL: Yesterday, Miguel, you and I were talking that there were a couple thousand firefighters who are trying to deal with these blazes. It sounds as if this is even out of their reach. Are they thinking of about bringing in more firefighters, or what are they doing to try to deal with this fire as it spreads?

MARQUEZ: Inevitably they they'll bring in more firefighters. It's up to a bout 2,700 now, as I understand it, for the Grand Prix Fire alone. Now that they have grown together, sometimes what they'll do is they'll create a fire complex, which means that they will unify the commands between those two fires. They will bring in additional federal resources so they can both get firefighters on the ground, and then once they get on the ground, get them to the places they need to go.

One other thing about the resources is we haven't seen the fixed wing aircraft dumping water and retardant on the fires in the last couple of day. Today, we saw some of those super scoopers that can carry 1,600 gallons of water apiece. They sort of, skim along the water and collect it up and fly back over the fire.

They, 2 super scoopers and several helicopters have dumped water back here all day today. Now, they're not flying, so we suspect that there were good conditions for flight earlier and maybe now conditions aren't so favorable, or they've been called to a separate fire, since there are several to choose from in this neighborhood.

The other fires, the one about a 100 miles northwest of here and the San Diego fire, at this point, are not taking resources from this fire, but what they'll do is bring in more resources from other states and in states farther east of them will have to backfill those states as resources become limited there -- Andrea.

KOPPEL: Well, obviously, a lot of brave men and women trying to fight that dangerous blaze. Miguel, I know we'll check back with you at the bottom of the hour. Thanks so much. We'll see you in a little bit.

END

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




California>


Aired October 26, 2003 - 16:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: Wildfires in Southern California have claimed at least two lives, burnt hundreds of homes and right now some 20,000 houses and other structures are endangered by the flames. Miguel Marquez has the latest from La Verne, California. It just seems, Miguel, this fire is going from bad to worse.
MIGUEL MARQEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I would like to be able to report it's getting better, but we just haven't had that opportunity the last couple days. I'm working one little corner of this fire now. And as I sort of worked on this thing on Friday, a second fire popped up east of here about 12 miles east of here. Then another fire north of here, about a 100 miles north of here. And then another fire south of here near San Diego.

That was in addition to several fires already burning in Southern California. So, it's a little difficult to keep up with all of this. But let me tell you what is going on here, we're in La Verne, California, right at the head of the Grand Prix fire which is been boiling behind us today in Clairemont, California, one suburb over. And it's been moving slowly and inevitably towards Los Angeles.

The Grand Prix Fire has now destroyed 59 plus homes in Clairmont, California and the old fire in San Bernadino has destroyed about 250 homes there. That number is expected to also rise.

Both of these fires, which were separated by ten miles to begin with have now burned together at the interchange of 215 and I-15 out here, if you know where that is. I-15, by the way, is the major freeway that goes between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, which should make some real fun traffic issues later today.

Both those fires have burned together creating a fire, a sort of super fire, about 72,000 acres in the San Bernardino and Angeles National Forests. Most of that is adjacent to urban areas, so you can understand the scope of this for firefighters with fire trucks, fire crews coming in from all over the country, descending on California in order to jump on this fire. As more fires break out, they bring in more and more crews from around the country.

Another problem this fire is having, is having national implications now for airlines causing some delays and some problems for airlines, because of an FAA control tower somewhere near Los Angeles, but not near the area of this fire where employees had to evacuate because flames were approaching and it upset the situation and the flow of air traffic into and out of LAX, San Diego Airport and some of the airports like Ontario, Burbank and John Wayne Airport. You mentioned two people dead, yesterday, apparently two elderly residents died from stress-related injuries because of the fire. And the press conference that you mentioned coming up from San Diego Sherrif's Department, we believe, we understand that they will offer some more details about some deaths that occurred down there.

The sheriff's department in San Diego saying that some individuals had been killed in San Diego. Radio is reporting anywhere between four and eight up here and they saying that they may have been trying to escape the fire in their automobiles. The other thing that we have been dealing with out here for the last couple of days are the winds, the Santa Ana winds. I can tell you that they have been squirrely at best today with the winds sort of pushing back between the oceans and the mountains all day.

Right now, is seems taht neither is winning. We're almost at a standstill and the fire behind us cooked all day and they expect those winds to blow in and pushing the fire behind me towards La Verne and closer to Los Angeles -- Andrea.

KOPPEL: Yesterday, Miguel, you and I were talking that there were a couple thousand firefighters who are trying to deal with these blazes. It sounds as if this is even out of their reach. Are they thinking of about bringing in more firefighters, or what are they doing to try to deal with this fire as it spreads?

MARQUEZ: Inevitably they they'll bring in more firefighters. It's up to a bout 2,700 now, as I understand it, for the Grand Prix Fire alone. Now that they have grown together, sometimes what they'll do is they'll create a fire complex, which means that they will unify the commands between those two fires. They will bring in additional federal resources so they can both get firefighters on the ground, and then once they get on the ground, get them to the places they need to go.

One other thing about the resources is we haven't seen the fixed wing aircraft dumping water and retardant on the fires in the last couple of day. Today, we saw some of those super scoopers that can carry 1,600 gallons of water apiece. They sort of, skim along the water and collect it up and fly back over the fire.

They, 2 super scoopers and several helicopters have dumped water back here all day today. Now, they're not flying, so we suspect that there were good conditions for flight earlier and maybe now conditions aren't so favorable, or they've been called to a separate fire, since there are several to choose from in this neighborhood.

The other fires, the one about a 100 miles northwest of here and the San Diego fire, at this point, are not taking resources from this fire, but what they'll do is bring in more resources from other states and in states farther east of them will have to backfill those states as resources become limited there -- Andrea.

KOPPEL: Well, obviously, a lot of brave men and women trying to fight that dangerous blaze. Miguel, I know we'll check back with you at the bottom of the hour. Thanks so much. We'll see you in a little bit.

END

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




California>